Wallowa River Loop Backpacking

Allen, Steve, Kevin, and I took the yearly "boys-only" backpacking trip to the Wallowas this year where we took the Wallowa River Loop Sept 19-21.


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From Wallowas

We went clockwise around the loop, camping at Aneroid Lake, heading over Polaris Pass, camping at Frazier Lake, and heading out over Glacier Pass and down through the Lake Basin.


Days: 3


Camps: Aneroid Lake, Frazier Lake


Trailhead: East Fork of the Wallowa River Trail


Rating: 5


Distance: 6.3mi / 11.8mi / 17.9mi


Note: I would highly recommend against going counter-clockwise through this loop. Going over Polaris Pass from the West would be a major pain in the butt. There is a steep slope of scree on the west side of the pass, and sliding down it was hard enough. Going up that way would be less than fun.


One thing that we read about this trail is that, while amazing, tends to be very crowded. This was definitely not our experience. Granted, September is a bit late in the year to go and some of the alpine meadows were a bit past their prime, but we did not see that many people. On day 1 we saw nobody. Day 2 we saw 4 people. Day 3 (Saturday) when we were in the Lake Basin we saw a good number of people but it was by no means "crowded".


Our original plan had been to spend 4 days doing the trip, camping at Horseshoe Lake on day 3 before heading out. However, the rain hit hard on day 3 and we just decided to push the 18 miles out.


OK ... let's get down to the trip summary.


We drove out to the Best Western in Enterprise on Wednesday night, meeting up with Kevin in Pendleton. This was not a bad drive from Portland, and we were able to get all packed up and to bed at a reasonable hour.


Thursday we woke up early (Steve was not pleased) and headed down to the trailhead which was a short drive away. The first part of the hike was not all that exciting. We climbed ~3200ft slowly but surely over ~6.3mi to Aneroid Lake. While the trail was a bit uneventful, the lake was great. It had some great views and we were all alone. It was probably one of the best campsites I have ever had while backpacking.


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From Wallowas

From Wallowas

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We got to camp at lunchtime, and had all afternoon to ourselves. We took a trip around the lake, which I would highly recommend. Then Allen and Steve took another hike up towards Bonnie Lakes while Kevin and I relaxed at camp.


Friday we got an early start, as we wanted to get to Polaris Pass before some weather that we saw on the forecast came in. The hike up to Polaris Pass over Tenderfoot Pass was great. This was probably my favorite part of the trip.


Here is a photo of me on the way to Polaris:

From Wallowas

Here is a photo of the four of us at Polaris Pass:

From Wallowas

The hike down from Polaris was rather steep and over some unstable scree for the first section. While I did not enjoy this, I was very happy to not be going up. After getting down the scree, we hit what was the most annoying set of switchbacks ever. These were the most gradual set of switchbacks I have ever hiked on and took forever for apparently no reason. We finally made it to Frazier Lake camp around 3. I was completely wiped out. This camp was nice, but definitely not as good as Aneroid.

From Wallowas

That night a massive thunderstorm moved in. It was pretty cool -- we would see a flash and then hear multiple bangs as the sound reflected off the mountains which surrounded our camp. It was also very gusty. We would hear the wind coming in, which was loud enough to wake you up, and then about 5 seconds later the wind would make it to the tents and just start ripping them around. This was probably the second worst storm I have ever been in while camping.


On the morning of day 3 we woke up to fog but no rain. We headed out towards Glacier Pass. It was really foggy, but still really nice.

From Wallowas

Glacier Lake was nice, but we could not really see the surrounding peaks so it was not as good as it could have been. As we headed down from Glacier Pass, it started to rain. We met up with Allen and Steve at Moccasin Lake (who had gone ahead earlier) and then headed towards Horseshoe Lake. Moccasin Lake was very nice and would be a great place for a base camp. It is ~13 miles from the trailhead though.


We made it to Horseshoe Lake, and to make a long story short, decided to make the push out. The rain was still coming down hard and we were past the "good" stuff. We finally made it back to the car around 6pm.


It was a great trip but could have been better if the rain cooperated. I would like to go back sometime for some more backpacking, but probably would not bother for a non-backpacking trip. Most of the good stuff was far enough back that you really could not day hike to it.